Summer has finally come to a close as chilly October weather blows away our humid, 80 degree evenings, and we will miss those warm nights! Over the past few months, our members and guests enjoyed many Celebration Nights out by our pool. Every Friday that the sun shone, we gathered for dinner, fellowship, and games.

On September 23, our fellowship celebrated the marriage of Timothy and Cate, two members of our community. Everyone worked tirelessly in preparation of decorations, food, desserts, and all the thousands of little details that go into such a special day. Blessed with splendid weather, we held both the ceremony and reception outdoors in our back lawn.

Our good friend, Alec Brooks, leads the Elders and Deacons in prayer over the newlyweds.

On Monday, August 21, many of us gathered outside to watch the greatly anticipated eclipse. Some made eclipse-viewers out of cereal boxes and tinfoil; others laid out paper underneath the trees in order to see the crescent shadows that occur during an eclipse. One of our members discovered that a welding mask could be used to safely view this phenomenon without suffering eye damage. Although the weather in our area was partly cloudy, we still managed to have some good views. The welding mask passed around our little group; Oo‘s and Ah‘s filled the air as each person took a turn to view the sun.

Recently, we put our engineering skills to the test as we constructed marble towers out of cardboard, paper, and boxes. Creativity abounded as teams designed and crafted their various structures; no two were alike! Some teams built freestanding structures and others used chairs, tables, and walls to support their towers.

This spring, we had our Annual Bake-Off. Each Family creates a dessert and an accompanying commercial, showcasing their tasty creations. However, this year’s Bake-Off involved a twist. We combined it with a surprise anniversary party for two of our members, John and Margie, celebrating their twenty years of marriage. We still baked desserts, but instead of our videos advertising our food, each family made a video for Jon and Margie. Some families retold the story of Jon and Margie’s early life together and others described the impact John and Margie have made, including the joys that they bring to our life together. It was a wonderful night of fellowship, celebration, desserts, and games.

We spent almost every Celebration Night by the pool this summer–swimming, grilling, and playing badminton. The weather was beautiful (only a few rainy weekends) and the mosquitoes were fairly well-behaved. Or biggest accomplishment was finessing our Marco Polo skills: an addicting game when played “silently”. Speed and stealth became a necessity!

Recently, we had so much fun playing Minute to Win It. Some of the challenges included moving skittles and ping-pong balls with only a spoon or straw in your mouth and moving a cookie from your eye to your mouth with only your facial muscles!

Every fall we celebrate the season with our “Harvest Party.” We vote on a theme such as “Western”, “Sci-Fi”, “All Things UK,” etc. This year we picked American history (just between 1900-1945) and broke up into teams to decorate our meeting hall accordingly. For a couple of weeks everyone was busy decorating, making costumes, and making up skits for the evenings entertainment. Take a look at the costumes and fun below!

This summer we had a lot of fun planning a surprise party celebrating the 20 years of Bret and Gretchen’s marriage. We secretly prepared decorations, bought gifts, and invited family from out of state, anxiously hoping Bret and Gretchen weren’t catching wind of our surreptitious operations! Our covert efforts paid off when they walked through the door, mouths agape. The evening went by quickly as we ate, played games and and shared how their friendship has been meaningful to each of us. Take a look at some of the highlights of the evening: